TIRANA, March 10 – The Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) has called on Albanian authorities to address poor detention conditions, prison healthcare services, and provide safeguards for involuntary hospitalisation.
In a recently-published report following a 2014 country visit, the CTP expresses concern over extremely poor conditions of detention in most police establishments, allegations of violence while in police custody and shortcomings in healthcare services.
Overcrowding was another issued identified in the report.
Most of the prison establishments visited by the CPT during the 2014 visit were operating above their official capacities, and disturbing levels of overcrowding were observed in certain parts of those establishments. Since the CPT’s 2010 visit to Albania, the country’s prison population had increased by more than 1,000 inmates to approximately 5,700 at the time of the 2014 visit for an overall capacity of some 4,500 places.
